“…Thus, there is a need to deepen conceptualisation of gendered working environments and understandings of women's identity work in physically demanding maledominated occupations. Although more studies have attempted to redress this (Mik-Meyer, Roelsgaard Obling and Wolkowitz, 2018) and make the often absent, 'naturalised and taken for granted' bodies more visible (Wolkowitz, 2006: 55), female workers' bodies continue to be under-researched. When it comes to work requiring physical exertion, the focus has been mainly on masculine bodies, such as firefighters (Thurnell-Read and Parker, 2008), largely 3 overlooking the significance of the corporeality of women workers in male-dominated occupations requiring physical work and those outside of feminised occupations involving body work (Cohen and Wolkowitz, 2018;Holmes, 2015;Wolkowitz, 2006).…”
Focusing on an unresearched group of women brewers, and drawing conceptually on embodiment and identity work, this article explores worker corporealities within the gendered landscape of microbreweries and deepens understanding of the body/work/gender nexus in the context of brewer's work. In doing so, it challenges the marginalisation of female worker bodies in scholarly work on male-dominated occupations. Drawing on interview and observation data collected in the UK in 2015, verbal narratives of women brewers' experiences of their working lives are utilised to provide insights into how their gendered bodily practices constitute resources for constructing a distinctive 'brewster' identity. Women brewers engage in identity work, on both individual and collective levels, through the material and symbolic framing of their embodied and gendered working selves; navigating their physical working environments; downplaying gender to emphasise physical competence; and foregrounding gender in relation to non-physical aspects to accentuate difference and collective contribution.
“…Thus, there is a need to deepen conceptualisation of gendered working environments and understandings of women's identity work in physically demanding maledominated occupations. Although more studies have attempted to redress this (Mik-Meyer, Roelsgaard Obling and Wolkowitz, 2018) and make the often absent, 'naturalised and taken for granted' bodies more visible (Wolkowitz, 2006: 55), female workers' bodies continue to be under-researched. When it comes to work requiring physical exertion, the focus has been mainly on masculine bodies, such as firefighters (Thurnell-Read and Parker, 2008), largely 3 overlooking the significance of the corporeality of women workers in male-dominated occupations requiring physical work and those outside of feminised occupations involving body work (Cohen and Wolkowitz, 2018;Holmes, 2015;Wolkowitz, 2006).…”
Focusing on an unresearched group of women brewers, and drawing conceptually on embodiment and identity work, this article explores worker corporealities within the gendered landscape of microbreweries and deepens understanding of the body/work/gender nexus in the context of brewer's work. In doing so, it challenges the marginalisation of female worker bodies in scholarly work on male-dominated occupations. Drawing on interview and observation data collected in the UK in 2015, verbal narratives of women brewers' experiences of their working lives are utilised to provide insights into how their gendered bodily practices constitute resources for constructing a distinctive 'brewster' identity. Women brewers engage in identity work, on both individual and collective levels, through the material and symbolic framing of their embodied and gendered working selves; navigating their physical working environments; downplaying gender to emphasise physical competence; and foregrounding gender in relation to non-physical aspects to accentuate difference and collective contribution.
“…In the following empirical extracts, we describe the fine‐grained nuances of female–canine companionship through which Kerttu exercises some sense of agency via her body (see Mik‐Meyer et al, ; Schuurman, , p. 211) on the one hand, and Suvi as the keeper interprets the changes in it on the other hand: It was Friday morning. Usually, when I wake up, my two retrievers follow me upstairs.…”
Section: A Story Of Female–canine Companionship: Padding Between Griementioning
confidence: 99%
“…By reflecting upon the joys and sorrows of living with a four‐legged friend, our aim is to illustrate how an autoethnographic story of heartbreaking dog–human companionship can provide more nuanced understandings of care and grief as complementary dimensions of gendered body work and, in this way, allow for more agency to be enjoyed in the relationship between the ‘pet’ and her keeper (cf. Redmalm, ; Schuurman, ; see also Mik‐Meyer et al, , p. 6). The article is organized as follows.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…By sharing an autoethnographic story of a specific female–canine companionship in which grief becomes entangled with the healing and palliative care of the animal, we render visible our lived experiences of our affective human–animal relations, still largely overlooked by organizational scholars (Birke, Bryld, & Lykke, ; Hamilton & Taylor, , ). The focus on female–canine companionship allows us to explore the gendered constructions of body work (Mik‐Meyer et al, ), in which ‘the animal is understood as a subject, an agent, and a partner in a relationship’ (Schuurman, , p. 211). As such, we describe the palliative care and mourning the loss of the pet and add it as a complementary conceptual pair to the existing literature, as described above (Figures , , , ).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Therefore, for us, there is a significant difference between a ‘thing’ and a companion animal. In our view, a companion animal is a sentient being with a certain sense of agency, which is gained through a special type of connection with others (Greenebaum, ), managed through the body (Mik‐Meyer et al, , p. 6) and exhibited in subtle and nuanced ways in the everyday interaction between the animal and her keeper. Hence, despite the great variety of existing studies on animal–human relations there is a need for studies that take seriously the gendered, embodied and affective dimensions of negotiating dog–human companionship.…”
What could the underdeveloped research area of canine–human companionship teach us about gendered body work as well as offer to the field of organization studies more broadly? This article responds to recent discussions on the animal in the organizational academy. We share an autoethnographic story of female–canine companionship as experienced by one of the authors of the article and her beloved dog, who is currently living on the borderlines between life and death, joy and mourning. We find this example relevant for raising important feminist concerns among organizational scholars about silenced questions around care and grief as well as for developing more inclusive and ethically grounded approaches to exploring research topics dealing with vulnerability. Finally, this article offers a critical reflection on the potential and limitations of alternative research in the field of organization studies that recognizes our affective relations with animals.
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